REMARKS BY NAIRI PETROSSIAN, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ARMENIA TO BSEC, AT THE RECEPTION DEDICATED TO THE 35 TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

14 October, 2026

Your Excellency Deputy Foreign Minister Berris Ekinci,

Your Excellency BSEC Secretary General Lazar Comanescu,

Ամենապատի՛վ Պատրիարք Սրբազան, Your Beatitude Patriarch Sahag II,

Your All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I,

Holy Spiritual Fathers,

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Ankara Diplomatic and Istanbul Consular Corps, BSEC Member States’ Senior Officials,

Distinguished Representatives of the Istanbul-based International Organizations,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Representatives of the Istanbul Local Authorities and All Walks of Life,

My Fellow Armenians, Սիրելի՛ Հայրենակիցներ,

At the outset I would like to thank you profusely for accepting our invitation to celebrate the 35^th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Armenia. I welcome you most cordially – Hos geldiniz! Geldiniz icin tesekkur ederim! Բարի՛ գալուստ, շնորհակա՛լ եմ, որ այսօր մեզ հետ եք: I am delighted to register that we have so many friends who sincerely wished to celebrate with us the independence and sovereignty of our nation.

It was 35 years ago that Armenia made a conscious decision to restore its independent State. That was a tough choice given the challenging geopolitical and economic circumstances of the day. However, that was also a litmus test for the nation’s will for its future existence. We exercised our right to self-determination and took the full responsibility for our own destiny.

That is a mission that goes on today and will continue tomorrow, as it is an unending exercise. It requires hard work and everyday dedication, both personal and institutional. As Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian noted, “we must acknowledge that independence – that is, the State – is the most important thing we possess together. For it is our State that can guarantee the preservation and development of our identity and culture; it is our State that can guarantee the continuity of our history; it is the State that makes us masters of our own destiny, making us the architects and guarantors of our freedom and security.”

Dear Friends,

Next year we will celebrate the 35^th anniversary of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, also known under BSEC acronym. It is no coincidence that Armenia’s and BSEC’s jubilees are so closely knit together. The very ideas of the independence Armenia and its integration into the wider region around us have been inseparable and mutually reinforcing.

BSEC is based in Istanbul, and it is a well-advertised cliché that we can have a lunch in Europe and a dinner in Asia without departing from the confines of this city. And what one needs to achieve that objective is connectivity. This is where BSEC comes handy and serves as an important bridge for all of us that share this wider region.

We want peace for Armenia and all its neighbors, the region we live in and the whole world. In this context I should emphasize that Armenia highly values the peace that has been established with our Eastern neighbor, Azerbaijan. We are looking forward to the further consolidation and institutionalization of the peace process. The Government of the Republic of Armenia is dedicated to this objective, and works tirelessly to achieve it.

For over three decades Armenia has actively been working and striving towards enhancing inclusive regional cooperation in the wider Black Sea region. This is a very diverse and complicated region; our hope is that peace and cooperation should prevail at this region.

Armenia itself at the end of the day decided to give outmost priority to relations with its neighbors. The Republic of Armenia considers its contribution to the region’s stability to be our key task in consolidation of international peace, stability, and development.

Dear Colleagues,

BSEC is an important bridge between the Republic of Armenia, a nation I have an honor to represent at this Organization, and the Republic of Turkiye, the host country of BSEC. In recent years one could have observed a steady progress in the bilateral dialogue between Armenia and Turkiye. Our intention is to further build upon it up, to encourage and develop more cooperation between the two of us at all possible avenues.

Our leaders – Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Erdogan – meet regularly, as they did most recently in New York. Foreign Ministers Mirzoyan and Fidan enjoy regular contacts too, including a telephone conversation that took place just a few days ago.

These all come to prove and manifest that Armenia and Turkiye have numerous shared interests. Furthermore, the two also have necessary political will to discuss such interests and to develop mutually beneficial solutions for that matter. This celebration that my Mission is organizing on behalf of the Government of Armenia is yet another symbolic step in the right direction, towards which both Armenia and Turkiye look together.

Our dialogue has been expanding in literally every area: from connectivity to education, from information and communication technologies to energy. It all bears a huge international significance beyond Armenia-Turkiye bilateral context. The project of restoring the historical Silk Road bridge to the city of Ani on our border that our two Governments have undertaken is yet another excellent and far-reaching metaphor to pin down our cooperation.

Armenia wants to establish, or to be more precise, restore the railway and digital connectivity between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. That would be a project of global importance promising great benefits to all countries concerned. These potential benefits can become a cornerstone for long-term stability and peace. This could become one of the most important events in the aforementioned fields facilitating connection between European Union, Turkiye, South Caucasus, Central Asia and China, India, South East Asia. The Crossroads of Peace initiative, our Connectivity Agenda and the TRIPP route can transform Armenia into an increasingly important bridge between Europe and Asia.

The figures for our bilateral trade have been growing. Armenia and Turkiye have made a conscious decision to remove any barriers for our bilateral trade, which has been going mostly through third parties. Now our entrepreneurs have finally got a chance to work with each other directly. Our precious neighbor Georgia has played an important role in exchanges we had, and we would continue to rely on the infrastructure that is already operational. Meanwhile, we see new openings possible in the areas of railroad connectivity and energy, and Armenia stands ready to contribute to these processes.

For Armenia, it is not merely about roads, railways or infrastructure. It is about connecting people, markets and societies. It is about adopting visionary and pragmatic policies, pursued under the leadership of Prime Minister Pashinyan. It is about overcoming geographic limitations and transforming them into an opportunity and an advantage.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To sum up my remarks, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to a number of individuals and organizations.

First and foremost, I would like to thank our distinguished senior (only in terms of position) colleague H. E. Ms. Berris Ekinci, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Turkiye. It is for the first time that Turkiye takes part in an Armenian official reception at such a high level. We really appreciate the very fact that you, Excellency, found time for this on your very busy schedule. I also thank Ms. Ayse Uzer, Deputy Director General for the Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, and all the colleagues from the Turkish Foreign Ministry for their constant support.

Last but not least, I should appreciate the contribution of my team, Ms. Anahit Chalikian, Political and Economic Officer, Ms. Erlin Ispiroglu, Executive Assistant, and Mr. Murat Ipek, Driver, for their dedicated work.

Before inviting our two Guests of Honor to take the floor, I should also like to announce that there will be a short musical performance. We have been honored today by the presence of a violin maestra, Ms. Anush Nikoghosian, who traveled from Yerevan to Istanbul especially for this event. It will include pieces by the renowned Armenian composers Alexander Spendiarian, Komitas vardapet, Aram Khachatourian, and Edward Baghdasarian.

It will be followed by a cocktail reception. I hope you, Dear Guests, will also have a chance to enjoy some food and taste Armenian wine and brandy. You are all most cordially invited to feel the taste of Armenia after this musical performance.

I thank you very much.

ԿԵՑՑԵ՛ ԱԶԱՏ ԵՎ ԱՆԿԱԽ ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆԻ ՀԱՆՐԱՊԵՏՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ։

LONG LIVE THE FREE AND INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA!

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